MEETING WITH THE SET DESIGNER AND THE LIGHTING DESIGNER
They advised us to have leaves falling from ceiling in the studio from a drop box or in the set to make the visuals more interest to watch and to incorporate the woodland theme into the studio.
We think this would add to the atmosphere and increase the complexity of the set design, showing that we are capable of handling more tasks.
They suggested that we could add red or blue gel to the lights in the woods at night for the projections to add an intensity to the mood.
We asked Charlie if he was available on the 16th November to be the guitarist for our music video.
We also emailed Mike our media teacher to confirm the replacement of Rory with Charlie.
Here is the confirmation email :
We emailed Elizabeth from the costume department and asked if they had any costumes or props that we were looking for. We emailed links of photos of the specific style we wanted. She told us that it would be possible for one of us to look around Radnor where the costumes are kept.
Here are the confirmation emails :
We also messaged Inflated Records for confirmation of the song by oberhofer we intend to use:
Wednesday, 21 October 2015
PART FIFTY THREE
We have drawn out our set designs and drawn boxes around each part of the set that we could shoot a close up of during filming.
We will be shooting on 16th November which means we will build the set during the previous Friday. We couldn't have Callum in our music video as he had many other priorities which were more pressing. Additionally, Rory Browne, initial guitarist, will not be in our music video as his attitude towards commitment was shoddy.
So we have re-arranged the band and our new band is:
We emailed the costume department at Hurtwood to see if we could look around as it would be easier to use the school's props and costumes that they already have rather than to buy our own and bring them to the shoot.
In order to get a grasp of what the finished video could look like, we filmed each image for 10 seconds then put all shots together in time to the music to create an animated storyboard.
Yesterday, we had a talk from two women that were Video commissioners at Polydor Recordswhich is a subsidiary of Universal music group.
The two girls work in video department of Polydor. There is also a press department and a digital department but with upcoming technology in the modern age, they cross over with each other.
The artist, the label, the director and the production company work together for putting together A BRIEF for the music video.
ORGANISATION
They then organise the deadlines; when the artist is available to shoot and the delivery date.
They talk to the artist during pre-production to get an image of their ideas for the track.
They will ask the artist about many factors which will affect the way the music video is shot:
If there's a specific meaning of song?
Is it literal?
Do they want to include animation?
Do they want to feature in the video?
What kind of location do they want to shoot in?
Will it be narrative based? (or non-linear, abstract etc).
YEARS AND YEARS
We were looking at the music video 'King':
Ollie put down his personal references and themes into the brief (The artist's decision).
The visual build matches build of the song. A common music video build is going from day to night.
20 to 40 grand was spent on 'King' by Years and Years. This is not a small budget but definitely not a large budget.
THE PROCESS BRIEF CONCEPT REFERENCES WHAT COULD HAPPEN WHAT COULD HAPPEN CONTINUED THE BAND ( THE DANCERS THE TONE AND ENERGY THE INVISIBLE FORCE ) LOCATION
CHOOSING A DIRECTOR
When it's decided what label wants and what the artist wants, they both put a brief together for the directors to look at and suggest ideas for how they would shoot this.
They show the artist and label the directors reels and IF they have worked with a director before or they know that his/her work is good and they trust it, they can leave the brief open for the director.
But if they don't trust the director's artistic flare and are specific about what they want for their video, they will give the director a more specific and detailed brief.
The two girls told us that they ask between 5 and 10 directors in order to get a wider variety of ideas for the artist to choose from.
It is better to keep brief more open because the artist's idea could develop on the day and if then have chosen a good director, he might come up with a range of interesting additional ideas which the artists might not have thought of.
BUDGET
The budget is dependent on record sales or tours.
For a typical music video, the budget ranges between a 5 grand minimum usually, but can be up to 200 grand.
THEIR JOBS
The jobs of the two women:
They need to make sure that everyone knows what kind of video it will be, whether it's ethereal, frightening or artistic:
They ensure that there will be no arguments.
They try and let the artist do their things and sort out any hiccups or drama that occurs behind the scenes.
The shoot should be a fun environment and a fun day.
If something goes wrong, they deal with ups and downs of that thing.
They help with the treatment, the support, they act as a bank of references for the director. Generally just to help the team out.
'Everything must be organised before the shoot date because it if not everyone, the label/the artist/the director, are not on the same page for the shoot, after the shoot date in post-production, the label or the artist may be displeased with the outcome of the video'.
From the point the music video gets confirmed, they ask for:
Storyboards
Casting
Shot list
Locations etc.
VEVO
Vevo is important because the radio looks at the demographics on Vevo and pick which songs to play based on view count. It's a 6 week turn around from scripting the video to delivering it to vevo. Vevo helps to push up the view count.
They give the artist and the director a week on average before shoot for video prep time.
They will deliver a first cut of the video a week after the shoot. They can then say whether they want to make changes or not.
Some upcoming artists will go for blogs or taste makers rather than a website. Whereas, commercial artists prefer a commercial website.
After new artists are signed, they will meet the A&R people, the team, then the marketing person. They will have a conversation about what they generally like, videos and etc. in order to give them a better video which is representative of them.
Most of the artist's biggest platform is online. Only very commercial artists would have two cuts; one for tv and one for youtube. Otherwise, unknown indie rock only have one cut.
OTHER INFORMATION
LA and South Africa are top places to film because they are non descript environments. If you have a bigger budget, you normally go through a production company for your music video, but for a small budget, a small hand picked crew is easier.
We brought five of our casting options into the studio to get photos of them and to take videos to see how they looked together. It was also important that they worked together and got on well in real life.
Guitarist: Alec
We thought he had a good look for the band because he can pull off the whole grumpy teenaged boy with a bad attitude. He can play the guitar too which will look better on camera than if we had a fake musician.
Lead Singer: Callum
We thought Callum would be a good lead because in the test shoot, he looked like a good performer and his hair is long enough to plait. He also has done acting and lip syncing before so his experience was better than the others.
Bassist: Jonty
Jonty's hair is rebellious and unusual, we thought he would fit the 'indie-Rock' theme of our video. He has a lot of attitude too and looks good in the band with the others. He also has played the bass guitar in the past which gives us an advantage.
Drummer: Ashen
Ashen looks older than the others and we originally wanted him to be the lead singer. He could play the drums better than the others though which gave him the edge and, although he would have been a good front man, Callum pulls a better 'moody' facial expression while lip-syncing.
MEETING WITH THE SET DESIGNER AND THE LIGHTING DESIGNER
